LAHORE: Mohammad Rehman of Royal Palm emerged as the first day leader of the fifth Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Golf Championships which teed off at the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club here on Friday.

This championship has attracted champions from all over Pakistan, yet Rehman of the home club did not relent and readily accepted the challenge posed by the likes of Ghazanfar Mahmood, Mohsen Zafar, Wazir Ali and Wazir Ali, to name a few.

During the first round, Rehman was the man in command and control and used the perfection oriented playing fairways to full advantage. He had four birdies on holes 3, 7, 8 and 10, twelve regulation pars and just two bogies on holes 12 and 16.

This helped him compile a first-round gross score of 70, two under par and thereby emerge as the leader of the field featuring 91 other competitors.

The nearest challenger for Rehman is Ghazanfar of Rawalpindi.

During the opening round on Friday, Ghazanfar did excel on fifteen holes but out of the remaining three he double-bogied the par three fourth hole because of an errant tee shot that shot over the green and a three putt on the closing hole which he bogied. All in all his round of 74 was compiled through one birdie, fifteen pars, one double bogie and one bogie.

Other competitors in line for honours are Zunair Aleem (75, Defence Raya), Robin Bagh (75, Sargodha), Zohaib Asif (76, Karachi), Fakhar Imam (76, Defence Raya) and Salman Jehangir (76, Lahore Gymkhana). They are followed by Faisal Sayid and Sajid Khan (both 77).

On the second day, the Annual Match of Pakistan Navy will also be contested between North Team and South Team.

The North Team comprises Vice Admiral Hasham Bin Siddique, Rear Admiral Athar Mukhtar, Rear Admiral Mohammad Amjad Khan Niazi, Rear Admiral Asif Khaliq, Cdre Imran Saeed, Cdre Ghazanfar Abbas and Cdre Mohammad Yasin.

The South Team consists of Rear Admiral Syed Imdad Imam Jafri, Rear Admiral Jamil Akhtar, Cdre Mateen ur Rehman, Cdre Tariq Ali, Capt Atif Shah, Capt Ahmed Hussain and Cdr Farhan Riaz.

Interestingly, Admiral Mohammad Zakaullah will play nine holes for North Team and nine holes for South Team.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015